After parting ways with Xu Qiuyan, I got into a taxi.
Maybe because I had gotten up early that day, but I fell asleep as soon as I got in.
When I opened my eyes again, the sight before me gave me a fright.
I was no longer in the taxi, though I was still in a car—a Nissan Honda Corolla.
The car carried a faint, pleasant scent of perfume, like osmanthus. A woman was driving.
I was seated in the back, and beside me sat someone dressed strangely. I could not make out his face at all; a misty aura obscured his features.
I called his clothes strange because he wore a black robe, as though someone had simply draped a piece of black cloth over him.
The woman drove with intense focus. He sat there quietly without moving, and I could not even sense his presence.
She was not driving fast, but she seemed unusually cautious, almost nervous, as if she were taking a driving test.
I was about to speak when the Black-Robed Man moved. He suddenly stretched out his left hand and tightly covered the woman's mouth and nose, while his right hand unfastened her seat belt.
Damn it!
Though I had no idea what was going on, I knew that what he was doing could easily cause a serious accident. My life might be on the line too.
The woman began to struggle. I shouted, "What are you doing? Let go!" As I spoke, I reached for the man's arm.
But I could not touch him at all. He was like air.
That was right—air. My hand passed straight through his body.
What the hell?
As my thoughts ran wild, a deafening crash rang out, and the car jolted violently.
I realized the car had hit a utility pole by the roadside. My head slammed hard into the back of the front seat, yet I felt nothing at all.
Even stranger, despite such a violent collision, the airbag in front of the driver's seat had not deployed. The woman's chest struck the steering wheel, and she cried out in pain.
The Black-Robed Man had already risen. Turning sideways, he grabbed the woman by the head, lifted it, and smashed it down viciously—first against the steering wheel, then against the window. He kept smashing her like that, and she was soon barely alive.
I was frantic and wanted to help her, but there was nothing I could do. I could not exert any force on either the Black-Robed Man or the woman.
Because when my hand touched the woman, it passed through her body as well.
All I could do was watch helplessly as the Black-Robed Man beat the woman half to death.
Then something even more terrifying happened. The car started again, reversed back into the lane, and then shot forward like an arrow.
With a thunderous boom, the car slammed into the median and sped straight toward a large truck hurtling toward it from the opposite direction. My eyes widened. This is it. I might die here.
I broke out in a cold sweat. Just as I had no idea what to do, a man's voice sounded beside my ear. "Why is there a traffic jam again?"
I jolted awake and realized I was back in the taxi. Wasn't that the driver who had spoken?
Looking out the window, I saw that we had not gotten far from where I had hailed the cab.
Had I just had a dream?
"There's a traffic jam up ahead. There must've been another accident. Are you in a hurry? If you are, get out here. I won't charge you. Cut through that alley and catch another cab on Worker Road. Don't let it delay your business."
I shook my head. I was not in a hurry.
"This is really strange. Ever since that major accident here half a month ago, cars have been getting into accidents around here every few days."
He had said it casually, but it caught my attention.
I asked, "Was the person who died in that car accident half a month ago a woman?"
"Yep. A woman driving a Honda Corolla first crashed into the utility pole on the right side of the road. Then she broke through the median, drove against traffic, and got hit by a large truck. Tsk, tsk. I saw it with my own eyes. Scared the life out of me. Ever since then, I've had a mental block every time I drive. I don't dare drive as recklessly as I used to."
A woman. A Honda Corolla. A utility pole. A median. A large truck.
Weren't those the exact things I had just experienced in the dream?
Could that woman have been Xie Xiaotang?
I could no longer stay calm.
"Sir, you said you saw that accident yourself. Was there anyone else in the woman's car?"
"No, she was alone. She looked like she was possessed or something. Anyway, she seemed very abnormal to me. Also, after the car was hit like that twice, the airbags still didn't deploy. I later heard from the traffic cops who handled the accident that there was nothing wrong with the airbags. They weren't jammed or anything. Isn't that eerie? If the airbags had deployed, maybe that woman wouldn't have died."
As he spoke, he took out a cigarette and was about to light it. Then he remembered I was in the car. "Mind?"
"No. Could I have one too?"
He handed me one, and we lit our cigarettes. Then he continued, "I just think the whole thing was abnormal. Forget the airbags for a second—let's talk about the woman. After she crashed into the utility pole the first time, she should've been injured judging by how she looked. So why did she start the car again and crash into the median? Wasn't that practically asking to die? If she wanted to kill herself, couldn't she have found somewhere else? Why do it on the road like that? Luckily, no one else got hurt."
Everything the driver said matched what I had seen in the dream.
The only difference was that he said there had only been the woman in the car, while I had seen the Black-Robed Man. And the one who had caused the entire accident was the Black-Robed Man. In other words, the person truly responsible for the woman's death was him.
If the woman had been Xie Xiaotang, then Xie Xiaotang had not died by accident after all. She had been murdered.
The Black-Robed Man was the murderer.
At that moment, I suddenly felt like a complete novice at investigating cases. Even now, it had never occurred to me to ask Gu Song for a photo of Xie Xiaotang. In other words, I did not even know what Xie Xiaotang looked like.
But it was fine. I had memorized the woman's face. Later, I would find a photo and see whether it was really her.
"Kid, who knows how long this jam will last. Are you sure you want to wait here with me?" the driver asked.
I nodded. I had nothing to do anyway. I could sit in his car for a while, then find somewhere to grab a bowl of rice noodles later. It would probably be time to head back to work in the afternoon by then.
The driver generously lifted the meter again after having turned it off. "It's nice to have someone to talk to. I won't charge you for this ride."
Just then, I casually glanced toward the roadside and felt as if someone was watching me.
I turned my head and immediately saw someone in a black robe. I still could not make out his features, but I could feel that he was staring at me.
I shoved open the car door and rushed out.
It was only because traffic was backed up that this was not incredibly dangerous.
The driver froze. "Hey, kid, why are you running off?"
I ran onto the sidewalk, but the Black-Robed Man had already vanished.
"Over there!" Chu Ge said.
He stood beside me, pointing in the direction of Jiaxiu Tower.
I saw a black figure from behind.
Without thinking, I chased after it.
Chu Ge followed closely behind me. However fast I ran, he matched my pace.
But I knew he could have gone faster.
Something suddenly occurred to me. In that dream just now, I had been alone. None of the three of them had appeared.
"I just had a dream," I said between gasps as I ran.
"I know. But that Dreamscape rejected us strongly. We couldn't enter it," he said.
"Oh?" This was the first time that had happened. No matter what kind of Dreamscape it was, at least one of them had always stayed by my side. Yet he said that Dreamscape had rejected them.
I wanted to say more, but Chu Ge vanished.
The black figure entered a small bamboo grove.
I rushed into the grove after him.
But he had disappeared again. I knew I had lost him.
"Chu Ge!" I called, but there was no response.
I called for Old Xie and Duan Hongbin as well, but there was still no response.
A trace of unease rose in my heart.
It was then that I realized something. Over the years, I seemed to have relied on them too much.
Whenever trouble arose, they always stepped forward and helped me bear it.
Without them, could I have made it this far? What would I be like without them?
Before you continue